HDMA Factbook: 2011 health product sales reach $294 billion

By Michael Johnsen

ARLINGTON, Va. — Healthcare product sales through the nation’s primary healthcare distributors hit a record high of $294 billion in 2011, according to the 2012-2013 HDMA Factbook released Friday. Specifically, pharmaceutical products moved by distributors represent approximately 90% of sales in the United States.

“This year’s Factbook continues to provide valuable metrics on distributor efficiencies,” stated Karen Ribler, EVP and COO of the Center for Healthcare Supply Chain Research. “It shows that healthcare distributors continue to be an essential stakeholder in the supply chain as the pharmaceutical market evolves.”

According to the Factbook, 2011 distributor sales, which increased by nearly 7% since 2010, outpaced the total growth of the pharmaceutical market during the same year. As IMS Health data indicated, pharmaceutical industry sales grew by 4% over 2010 to reach a total of $319.9 billion.

A major reason for this growth is due to the continued introduction of specialty/biotech products into the marketplace, HDMA concluded.

While the majority of traditional distributors’ net sales — 98% — continue to be earned by distributing pharmaceuticals, the ongoing “patent cliff” is still affecting the product mix within these sales figures. Generic pharmaceuticals in particular gained 32% over 2010 to represent 11% of total distributor sales, while branded pharmaceutical sales have decreased by nearly 2% to reach nearly 75% of sales. Sales of prescription specialty products through distributors also fell slightly by 1% to account for 12% of distributors’ sales.

At the warehouse level, individual HDMA-member distribution centers processed an average of 27.2 million products in 2011. This represents more than 390,000 orders placed for healthcare products from an average of 1,100 manufacturers.